January 1, 2024
After saying Goodbye to Jane, and mentioning we have to do this again, Kevin, the girls, and I drove up to Cushing Point to see the Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse and Fort Gorges in the distance. I didn’t make it all the way to the Bug Light Park. Kevin and the girls were cold. And so they bailed on me. However, this didn’t stop me from getting several photos done. Before we left, we witnessed about half a dozen people doing the New Year’s Day Polar Bear Plunge in the cold water of the Fore River.🥶🐻❄️ That’s one way to keep the immune system in shape. I’m still freezing, just writing about it.
Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse
The lighthouse was constructed in 1897 by the government after seven steamship companies stated that many of their vessels ran aground on Spring Point Ledge. Congress initially allocated $20,000 to its construction, although the total cost of the tower ended up being $45,000 due to problems with storms and poor-quality cement. The lighthouse featured a fog bell that sounded twice every 12 seconds, and a lantern fitted with a fifth-order Fresnel lens first lit by Keeper William A. Lane on May 24, 1897.
Improvements were made to the lighthouse throughout the 20th century. It was electrified in 1934, and in 1951, a 900-foot breakwater made from 50,000 short tons (45,000 t) of granite was constructed to connect the lighthouse to the mainland. The lighthouse was originally owned and operated by the United States Coast Guard. However, on April 28, 1998, the Maine Lights Selection Committee approved a transfer of ownership of the tower to the Spring Point Ledge Light Trust, with the USCG retaining only the light and fog signal. On May 22, 1999, Spring Point Ledge Light was opened to the public for the first time in its history. It is a popular spot on any summer day for families to picnic and boat-watch on the breakwater or for fishermen to spend an afternoon catching fish. Adjacent to the lighthouse, visitors may also tour the old Fort Preble, the Southern Maine Community College Campus, and visit a small gift shop.
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Fort Gorges
Following the War of 1812, the United States Army Corps of Engineers proposed that a fort be built on Hog Island Ledge, in Casco Bay at the entrance to the harbor at Portland, Maine. It was part of the third system of US fortifications. Named for the colonial proprietor of Maine, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, it was constructed to support existing forts, including Fort Preble in South Portland and Fort Scammel built on nearby House Island in 1808. Congress, however, did not fund the construction of Fort Gorges until 1857. The walls of the fort were begun the next year, and when the American Civil War broke out in 1861, work quickly advanced.
The fort was designed by Colonel Reuben Staples Smart. The chief architect in charge of construction was Thomas Lincoln Casey, who later became Chief of Engineers. It is similar in size and construction to Fort Sumter but is built of granite instead of brick.
The fort was completed in 1865 as the war ended. Modern explosives made the fort obsolete by the time it was completed. A modernization plan was begun in 1869, but funding was cut off in 1876, with the third level of the fort still unfinished. During the modernization project, sod-covered sand was added to the top level of the fort to protect gun encasements and powder magazines from attacks.
The Fort’s armament consisted of thirty-four 10-inch Rodman guns mounted in the fort’s casemates. In 1898, all guns were removed from the fort except a large 300-pounder (10 in (254 mm)) Parrott rifle which was on the top of the fort but not mounted. The 300-pounder Parrott rifle still remains in place and is one of the largest surviving specimens of Civil War vintage artillery. The fort was last used by the Army during World War II when it was used to store submarine mines.
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Fort Scammel
Henry A. S. Dearborn, an officer of the Massachusetts Militia and a future general, built Fort Scammell on the island in 1808 as part of the national second system of fortifications. It was named after Alexander Scammell, Adjutant-General of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, who was killed in action during the Battle of Yorktown. (The middle names of the fort’s builder were also chosen after Scammell, a friend of the builder’s father, Secretary of War Henry Dearborn.) The fort was designed for harbor defense, with cannon batteries designed to protect the main shipping channel into Portland harbor, along with Fort Preble. The spelling of the fort’s name varies among references. The fort was made of stone, brick, and earth, and initially mounted fifteen guns and a 10-inch mortar. The Secretary of War’s report on fortifications for 1811 describes Fort Scammell as “a circular battery of masonry with circular flanks, mounting fifteen heavy guns, is covered in the rear with a wooden blockhouse, mounting six guns…”. Typical weapons of the period were 24-pounder or 32-pounder smoothbore cannon.
In the 1840s–1850s, as part of the national third system of fortifications, Fort Scammell was modernized by extending its walls to enclose a larger area. Thomas Lincoln Casey, an Army engineer officer known for his work on the Washington Monument, completely rebuilt the fort beginning in 1862 during the American Civil War. As rebuilt to the new Third System design Fort Scammell was unique in the US, with the design centered on two three-tier stone-and-brick bastions connected by earth walls rather than stone curtain walls. A third bastion was never completed. To allow timely completion, the remaining bastions had a tier or two each removed from the design. As completed, the west bastion had a single tier of casemates and the east bastion had two tiers. In the 1870s additional earthworks to accommodate 10-inch and 15-inch Rodman guns were constructed, but only some of these were completed due to a national freeze on fort construction in the late 1870s. Fort Scammell was not re-armed in the Spanish–American War of 1898, and was listed as disarmed in a 1903 report.
Two emplacements for anti-aircraft guns were added in 1917, probably for the 3-inch gun M1917. Of all the forts in Casco Bay, Fort Scammell was the only fort to fire a shot and be fired upon in battle, in early August 1813.
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Resources: Wikipedia
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Tanja's Little Corner of The World 